No matter how good your business is, there will always be unhappy customers who leave bad reviews on your Google My Business. There’s nothing worse than a Google review that says “did the job, 1-star.” Some people just can’t be pleased. However, there are actions you can take to remedy bad reviews and make the most of them: know when bad reviews are posted, reply as soon as you can and apply the feedback you’ve received.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Know when a negative review is submitted
Keep an eye on your Google My Business account so that you can catch bad reviews as soon as their submitted. Negative reviews look bad enough as it is, but if they’ve been sitting there, unattended, it will look a lot worse. If you don’t get a chance to have a look at your reviews much, consider using a review tracking software to stay up to date with negative reviews. Quick responses are imperative to redeeming a bad review.
Step 2: Reply to review quickly and politely
Once you are alerted to a negative review, you need to reply quickly and carefully. A good practise is to make sure the person replying to the review is detached from the situation. For example, if someone has complained about a particular member of staff, probably best that person doesn’t reply to the review. If this isn’t possible, reply as politely, objectively and calmly as you can. There is a general approach to replying:
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Reply publicly to the customer so that people searching for your business will see that you’re actively addressing complaints
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Apologise to the customer
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Offer a solution to the problem described in the review. If there is little mention of the problem, like a 1-star review with no commentary, clarify what the problem is.
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Prompt the customer to continue the conversation in private (i.e. give us a call, come see our manager, etc.)
Step 3: Take the feedback on board
Wherever possible, apply the feedback received. If a bad review is based on a freak occurrence, then there probably isn’t too much to learn. However, if you’re receiving a lot of the same comments, or the review reveals a valid flaw with your service delivery process or your product, see how you can apply the feedback to your blueprint. If you’re constantly getting bad reviews about that one waiter, you may want to re-train or closely supervise them. Taking on feedback can apply to your positive reviews as well. Your Google reviews may reveal where your business is particularly strong so you can keep doing what works. Overall, keep up to date with your business’ Google reviews to leverage both positive and negative comments. Negative reviews aren’t all bad though. Stay posted for next week’s blog about the benefits of negative Google reviews.
Keeping up with your reviews
As discussed above, if you’re having trouble tracking your reviews, there are softwares available that can alert you when you receive bad reviews. For more information about Google reviews, call SBIM on +61 7 3325 0505 or email webmaster@sbim.com.au
